Tūhura Otago Museum hosted another After Dark event last Friday–this time, themed for Pride Month. With support from OUSA and Dunedin Pride, the After Dark - Pride Party was another rendition of the museum’s late-night R18 events, following on from the success of After Dark - Love Island last year.
The interactive Science Centre was transformed into a silent disco, with certifiably queer anthems playing throughout the night. Listen: you haven’t lived until you’ve made a children’s bike-riding skeleton cycle along with you to the beat of Village People - Y.M.C.A, alcoholic beverage in hand. People adorned in gay apparel circled the temporary bar, awaiting pride-themed cocktails fresh from The Alchemist. Queer speed dating also seemed a roaring success, as the sign-up sheet was full well in advance for the hourly sessions. There were ample activities; it was wonderfully surreal seeing loud-and-proud queerness in the transformed quiet of a museum.
One partygoer stressed the importance of events such as these for the queer community. “The gay scene [in Dunedin] is really patchy,” she said. “Most of the time, it’s like we’ve got Woof and that’s it, so it’s great when [queer events] pop up.” It can be really unfortunate when town “feels super straight sometimes”, and though queer nightlife currently feels like you have to “take what you can get, whenever you can get it,” it’s “super important” when large venues like the museum are able to provide queer, late-night events, she concluded, before the allure of the planetarium called her once more.